MetLife partners with Family First to bring expanded caregiving benefits to employees

Nearly a third of the U.S. workforce is made up of caregivers, who balance work responsibilities while supporting loved ones at home. But are employers doing enough to support those caregivers?

Caregiving benefit provider Family First recently partnered with MetLife Legal Plans to provide comprehensive support for employees navigating challenges of caring for a loved one, according to a press release. Through this collaboration, MetLife Legal Plans enrollees and their families will have access to Expert Care Teams of professionally accredited nurses, physicians, social workers and mental health professionals, as well as a resource library.

“When you think about caregiving — whether it's our children or our parents or cousins and aunts and uncles — the need [for benefits] is really there,” says Loi Stoddard-Graham, vice president of product and business development at MetLife Legal Plans. “Expanding with Family First was really just a natural expansion for us. We really want to make sure that we're covering members for everything they need at this point.”

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Over 50 million adults in the U.S. act as caregivers for family members and loved ones, according to a 2020 report by the AARP. And the pandemic has only made it worse — family caregivers are burned out by their responsibilities, more than 71% are experiencing mental health challenges due to COVID, 82% experiencing stress and 62% suffering from depression.

Beyond personal support, caregiving benefits can have a direct impact on an employee’s professional life, Stoddard-Graham says. Implementing caregiving benefits into a standard offering will not only cut down on the amount of research and caregiving tasks employees have been doing during work hours, but will help to relieve stress, inadvertently boosting productivity and even retention.

“Employers that will really care for their employees and want them to have a work-life balance, this is not just a trend — they're on top of this,” she says. “And anyone who's working at a top company, these will be the benefits that they’re not only looking for, but they're going to have access to.”